1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a chip card connector comprising a base frame with integrated contact springs and a closing cover, the cover being hinged on the base frame.
2. Description of Prior Developments
A type of chip card connector as defined above is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,603,629. The chip card connector as described has in its closing cover a support for the chip card by which the latter is positioned in a precise manner. The base frame with integrated contact springs has a grid for fixing the contact spring precisely, in such way that the chip card connector as a whole, with its minimum of four surface layers, occupies a relatively large amount of space which is a major disadvantage when operating under very tight space conditions.
The present invention has as a primary objective that of improving a chip card connector in such a way that with minimum dimensions and a minimum construction height, the opening and closing of the chip card connector cover is possible even under extremely tight space conditions.
The above described objective is achieved according to the features of the present invention, by a chip card connector comprising a base frame with integrated contact springs and a closing cover hinged from above the base frame in such a way that in a closed position, the chip card introduced into the base frame leans against the contact springs, projecting into the interior of the base frame in which the closing cover has on the side opposite its rotation axis, two stop arms with their indexing tip members engaged in the closed position under the shoulders provided on the edge of the base frame located opposite one another, and which can rapidly be folded against one another at the cover, in order to cause it to open.
According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the stop arms are essentially made from two small bars coming from three open recesses, arranged next to one another, which extend as far as a front zone in which they are widened and the indexing tip members being located on the front edge bent at 90xc2x0 angle.
According to a further embodiment of the present invention, projections are provided in the widened front zone of the stop arms in order to catch the arms.
The chip card connector according to the invention has an extremely reduced construction volume, given that essentially, it consists of two parts, each of which performs all the functions which in the hitherto state of the art, were divided over different individual components. In this way, the chip card is guided at the same time as it is being placed into the base frame, in such a way that it reaches its final position. The contact springs are integrated directly into the base and project through the openings, which are provided there, into the interior of the chip card connector where they meet the corresponding contacts on the chip card. The closing cover develops the necessary pressure, whereby the chip card is pressed against the contact springs and forms a closing mechanism, which is very easy to use by the top, such that it is possible to dispense with a side access of the chip card connector when it is being fitted under restricted conditions of space. This is particularly interesting for the fitting of chip card connectors for SIM cards in mobile telephones, which, due to their compact constructions, leave only an extremely small space for the fitting of a chip card connector.